School Research Seminar: Hosted by Dr Liam Campling (CfEP)

11 February 2015

Speaker name & affiliation

Seminar title

Management – the First Neo-liberal Science?

Abstract

There has been an upsurge in studies of neo-liberal thought. Two recent developments within this have been an unearthing of the deep links between social science and neo-liberalism (Mirowski 2013: Dardot and Laval 2013: Gane, 2013 2014, Davies, 2014). What follows seeks to further examine these links through an examination of neo-liberal and management thought at their origins. The paper explores the early foundations of neo-liberalism and management thought to argue that they share the same fundamental features – namely, a belief in active intervention, the prioritisation of competition, and the necessity of elite leadership. The purpose of all three features is the reshaping of subjectivity and social relations.